Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

Albert Ross wrote:

I strongly suspect that in the audio world the effect of poor
connections outweighs the effect of the cable by several orders of
magnitude unless you're using piddly little bell wire.

Friend of mine works is an electrician working in pubs a lot, and one
landlord asked him if he could figure out why the music was louder in
the lounge than in the bar, this being the opposite of the ideal. The
lounge speaker was connected by 2m of speaker cable as supplied with the
audio kit. The bar speaker was connected by approx 15m of six core
burglar alarm cable, only two cores being used. It made quite a
difference apparently.

Bill

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

In article , Albert Ross
wrote:
On Thu, 12 May 2011 09:00:39 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

B) No example I know of where anyone has demonstated - either by
measurement or by a controlled listening comparison - that there was
any change, except for fairly trivial cases like cable connector
corrosion changes.

I learned that one in spades when I had a Fiat. The electrics were made
of aluminium rather than copper. I took to carrying a wire brush so when
a bulb or switch appeared to have failed I could brush the oxidised crud
off the contacts and get it back to life.
[snip]

I strongly suspect that in the audio world the effect of poor
connections outweighs the effect of the cable by several orders of
magnitude unless you're using piddly little bell wire.

Some years ago someone did a test where they deliberately tried to corrode
phone and din plugs and sockets in various ways. They found that with most
decent makes this was much harder than they'd assumed. Result was that
almost all connections worked fine regardless. Albeit with one or two
exceptions for particularly flimsy examples.

And din line sockets - despite being sneered at by many audiophiles - were
designed with 'self cleaning' via a scraping action when the plug was
pushed into the socket.

The biggest weak link in my experience was the old din speaker plugs and
sockets. Used over a long period they did tend to form a lot of a black
contamination that eventually produced contact diode effects quite visible
on a distortion analyser. But this usually required some years of use
without being pulled out or cleaned or reinserted. Also required modest
power levels as larger currents tended to burn off the contamination!

I have occasionally found problems with phono/rca contamination growth
(after years of use). But removing the plugs and cleaning them with
something generally fixes it.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

I've just seen that PC Mag has tested a range of HDMI cables from a
dollar to hundred, and found not much difference. See
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385272,00.asp

So my hunch, that a cheap one would be good enough, was right.

--
Clive Page

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

In article , Bill Wright
scribeth thus
Albert Ross wrote:

I strongly suspect that in the audio world the effect of poor
connections outweighs the effect of the cable by several orders of
magnitude unless you're using piddly little bell wire.

Friend of mine works is an electrician working in pubs a lot, and one
landlord asked him if he could figure out why the music was louder in
the lounge than in the bar, this being the opposite of the ideal. The
lounge speaker was connected by 2m of speaker cable as supplied with the
audio kit. The bar speaker was connected by approx 15m of six core
burglar alarm cable, only two cores being used. It made quite a
difference apparently.

Bill

I should think it did!, you'd better not mention that over at
uk.rec.audio you'd be blackballed outa town!..


--
Tony Sayer

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

On Sat, 14 May 2011 14:36:45 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

I strongly suspect that in the audio world the effect of poor
connections outweighs the effect of the cable by several orders of
magnitude unless you're using piddly little bell wire.

What's wrong with piddly little bell wire? Perfectly good enough for audio.

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

In article , Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:
On Sat, 14 May 2011 14:36:45 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

I strongly suspect that in the audio world the effect of poor
connections outweighs the effect of the cable by several orders of
magnitude unless you're using piddly little bell wire.

What's wrong with piddly little bell wire? Perfectly good enough for
audio.

Depends on your answer to the old Morcambe and Wise question, "How long is
it now?" 8-

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/cables/lscables.html

....and on your choice of speakers, etc. Most are nothing like a "8 Ohm
resistive load".

FWIW For those who are sufficiently audio-bonkers there are also
measurements of loudspeaker cable inductances, etc, elsewhere on the
audiomisc website.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

On Sat, 14 May 2011 15:03:09 +0100, Bill Wright
wrote:

Albert Ross wrote:

I strongly suspect that in the audio world the effect of poor
connections outweighs the effect of the cable by several orders of
magnitude unless you're using piddly little bell wire.

Friend of mine works is an electrician working in pubs a lot, and one
landlord asked him if he could figure out why the music was louder in
the lounge than in the bar, this being the opposite of the ideal. The
lounge speaker was connected by 2m of speaker cable as supplied with the
audio kit. The bar speaker was connected by approx 15m of six core
burglar alarm cable, only two cores being used. It made quite a
difference apparently.

Yes, a nice bit of two core mains cable does the job just as well as
any of those specialist "interconnects"

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

On Sat, 14 May 2011 17:16:30 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:


Some years ago someone did a test where they deliberately tried to corrode
phone and din plugs and sockets in various ways. They found that with most
decent makes this was much harder than they'd assumed. Result was that
almost all connections worked fine regardless. Albeit with one or two
exceptions for particularly flimsy examples.

And din line sockets - despite being sneered at by many audiophiles - were
designed with 'self cleaning' via a scraping action when the plug was
pushed into the socket.

The biggest weak link in my experience was the old din speaker plugs and
sockets. Used over a long period they did tend to form a lot of a black
contamination that eventually produced contact diode effects quite visible
on a distortion analyser. But this usually required some years of use
without being pulled out or cleaned or reinserted. Also required modest
power levels as larger currents tended to burn off the contamination!

I have occasionally found problems with phono/rca contamination growth
(after years of use). But removing the plugs and cleaning them with
something generally fixes it.

Interesting, probably the effects on computers are a magnitude higher
because of the lower currents involved, and the higher frequencies. I
know I've "fixed" the stereo in a similar way by pulling and reseating
the plugs, and I remember when we moved the ends of the speaker cables
(post connectors) were so black and cruddy I cut them off and stripped
a new shiny bit of cable. So far so good.

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

In message , Albert Ross
writes
On Sat, 14 May 2011 17:16:30 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:


Some years ago someone did a test where they deliberately tried to corrode
phone and din plugs and sockets in various ways. They found that with most
decent makes this was much harder than they'd assumed. Result was that
almost all connections worked fine regardless. Albeit with one or two
exceptions for particularly flimsy examples.

And din line sockets - despite being sneered at by many audiophiles - were
designed with 'self cleaning' via a scraping action when the plug was
pushed into the socket.

The biggest weak link in my experience was the old din speaker plugs and
sockets. Used over a long period they did tend to form a lot of a black
contamination that eventually produced contact diode effects quite visible
on a distortion analyser. But this usually required some years of use
without being pulled out or cleaned or reinserted. Also required modest
power levels as larger currents tended to burn off the contamination!

I have occasionally found problems with phono/rca contamination growth
(after years of use). But removing the plugs and cleaning them with
something generally fixes it.

Interesting, probably the effects on computers are a magnitude higher
because of the lower currents involved, and the higher frequencies. I
know I've "fixed" the stereo in a similar way by pulling and reseating
the plugs, and I remember when we moved the ends of the speaker cables
(post connectors) were so black and cruddy I cut them off and stripped
a new shiny bit of cable. So far so good.

If corrosion is a likely to be problem, a tiny waft of WD40 is very
effective in warding off the evil spirits which cause it.
--
Ian

Amazing prices for HDMI cables
 

On Mon, 16 May 2011 11:54:29 +0100, Ian Jackson
wrote:

If corrosion is a likely to be problem, a tiny waft of WD40 is very
effective in warding off the evil spirits which cause it.

I heart WD 40, is there anything it doesn't fix?